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Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Letters to the Editor: GAA has lost the hearts and minds of the country
For two years now I have been saying the GAA's 'split season' is an absolute disaster and to tell the truth, I've often felt like I was wasting my time and energy, so I'm glad that at least one former Inter County manager has come around to my way of thinking. Let me repeat again, the split season has been an unmitigated disaster for the GAA. But let's examine the reasons why the split season was introduced in the first place. Undoubtedly, ordinary GAA Club players weren't getting fair play under the old system, where the Inter County Championships ran from May until September. A club championship game was fixed, then the County team were involved on a draw and replay, and the Club game went off. This happened repeatedly — first rounds of Club championships were often played in May and it could be September before the next game. Certainly there was no certainty for the Club players who make up around 92% of all hurlers and footballers — they couldn't plan holidays, weddings, honeymoons or other social occasions. There was a major problem and as a Club Officer for decades, I am well aware of what pertained. The so-called solution — the Utopia, the panacea — the much-lauded split season has solved one problem but caused many others far more serious than the old postponement of fixtures. Has the GAA ever commissioned a cost-benefit analysis of the split season? Maybe secretly, but I never heard of it anyway. I don't simply mean cost-benefit in terms of finance, but in terms of developing our games and promotion. Our promotion in the GAA is woeful. Take the Munster Final next week. After great games in the early round, we now play our top game at 6 o'clock of a Saturday evening — have we a curtain raiser? Have we a band? Have we a price hike for tickets? The club championships in every county are the 'bread and butter', the lifeblood of the GAA in every parish. Our Inter County games then should be our shop window, our Champions League, our premiership, something to attract youngsters to Gaelic Games and foster a love of our native pastimes. Here we are at the end of May and over 60% of all our Inter County Hurling teams are 'wrapped up' for 2025. Promotion — how are ya! Fair play to one of the Munster rugby bosses who lately commented on the 'promotional value' to rugby of big games in Croke Park and Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Fair play to the GAA, we truly are sportingly ecumenical, but it isn't it time we saw after our own? Losing the absolute grasp we had on the minds and hearts of the country every September has been an unmitigated disaster. Is the GAA too proud to admit 'We made a mistake' and admit the same in regards the decoupling of minor and senior inter-county games. Ad nauseam I have proposed a dual 'side-by-side' Club and Inter County games programme running from April until September — like the song says 'When will they ever learn?' John Arnold, Bartlemy, Co Cork Time to honour our Defence Forces heroes Commandant (retired) Ray Cawley once again draws attention (Letters, Irish Examiner) to continuing 'failure' of various Irish governments to ensure the heroic actions of the members of the Irish Defence Forces and the brilliant leadership displayed in the defence of Jadotville are properly acknowledged. Cmdt Cawley, in my opinion, correctly criticises our Government, senior civil servants, and military hierarchy for their continuing failure in this regard. I can confirm that during my time with the United Nations peacekeeping operations, I met several civilian and military personnel who were in the Congo at the time of the siege of Jadotville. All spoke in glowing terms of the performance of Irish military personnel. Several military officers from various nations confirmed to me that the defence of Jadotville is used in their training academies as an example of outstanding defensive actions. Yet successive Irish governments in the past 60 years have failed to properly recognise the actions of those brave men. Shame on them all, government ministers and ministers for defence — beginning with Micheál Martin, former minister for defence, and Simon Harris, current minister for defence. Recently, Fergus Finlay wrote: 'Our leaders are running a 'do-nothing' parliament and it's offensive.' Any wonder that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael between them could not form a government after the last general election? The people of Ireland deserve better. Over to you, Micheál and Simon. Michael Moriarty, Rochestown, Cork Trump deserves praise for keeping cool head The editorial on May 27 adopted a rather belligerent attitude towards US president Donald Trump for, apparently, not plunging Europe, including Ireland, into a devastating world war since his return to the presidential office in the US. Looked at a little more objectively, it would appear that Mr Trump is behaving in a somewhat restrained manner for the sake of the American people, and for all our sakes, by not allowing himself to be dragged or pushed by belligerent people into a world war scenario. The Irish Examiner's editorial attack on Mr Trump is quite personal. The extract reads 'Trump's narcissistic streak' and 'Trump needs to up his game'. Instead of such negative personalised comments, the Irish Examiner should be thanking Mr Trump, profusely, for keeping a cool head — and avoiding, so far, a major world war — unlike certain other European leaders. In the Financial Times, in an editorial under the heading 'Europe needs smart rearmament', on May 15, Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, is quoted as follows: 'If Europe wants to avoid war, Europe must get ready for war.' I think this is ill-conceived advice from the European Commission president — it is myopic; it ignores the underlying causes of the two horrific wars in Europe in the last century, namely the First World War and Second World War. Is this lady readying the scene for another world war? For instance, regarding the Second World War, the construction by France in the 1930s of the heavily fortified and armed Maginot Line along its border with Germany didn't avoid that war. It would appear that Ms Von der Leyen, along with others in Europe and elsewhere, are unaware of the dire recent warnings by an eminent US organisation, the Science and Security Board, of the imminent nuclear threat facing the people of Europe, including Ireland. For instance, since the beginning of the year, the Doomsday Clock (Albert Einstein et al) has moved closer than it has ever been to predicting a major global disaster — the clock now stands at 89 seconds to midnight. The Doomsday Clock's Science and Security Board Bulletin of Atomic Scientists warned on January 28, 2025, with regard, for example, to the increasing possibility of nuclear war, that: 'The war in Ukraine, now in its third year, looms over the world; the conflict could become nuclear at any moment because of a rash decision or through accident or miscalculation.' Micheál O'Cathail, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin We must stand up for victims of Gaza now In the years to come, a global generation of young people will confront their parents with simple questions: What did you do to oppose the catastrophic genocide of innocent civilians in Gaza? What did you do to resist the deliberately induced Israeli famine in Gaza? If that question is met with a variation of, 'What could we do? We were only observers/bystanders with no direct ability to challenge the slaughter,' it will be treated with the same contemptuous response that consumed the first generation of post-Second World War German children in the 1960s, when they demanded of their parents, 'What did you know or not do about the persecution of Jews that culminated in the Holocaust? The overwhelming response to that question was a variation of personal innocence, ignorance, and/or helplessness. This led to the scathing term 'mitläufer', a label depicting an individual, who through a lack of courage, didn't confront the obvious evilness of the evolving Holocaust. What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here We witness in real time on a daily basis the mass starvation and daily bombardment of 2m defenceless Palestinians. Will our children and grandchildren in the years to come not also challenge us with a simple question: What did you demand of your government? The very least we should be able to answer is that we demanded of our TDs an immediate implementation of the occupied territories bill — a piece of legislation which is a totally inadequate resort to the incremental displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. Yet consecutive Irish governments have found multiple excuses to not apply even this deficient response. If we do not mobilise as a national collective to demand/force our representatives to act on Israeli genocide, we too will have to bare the guilt of the morally outraged yet, at the same time, otherwise engaged citizen. Kevin McCarthy, Clonfadda, Killaloe, Clare Cruel impact of Catholic Church's negative labels The Irish Catholic Catechism of 2014 states homosexual acts are 'intrinsically disordered' and 'contrary to the natural law'. Sadly, this teaching can unfairly put gay people off having any gay friendships, and it can also prevent normal friendships forming between gay people and straight people. In turn, Catholic straight people also get to hear false biology teaching from their own Church — a false type of lesson that is easily apt to mischievously get under their skin and make Catholic straight people feel uncomfortable to be in social settings with gay people. This can cruelly be the case, I feel, no matter how talented and nice gay people may strive to appear to be. The Catholic Church often says gay people should be loved by everyone else in society. But this will, I fear, never fully make up for the harm such an offensive and divisive term as 'unnatural' can cause this significant minority. Many acts committed against the law of our land are not considered unnatural and so may soon enough be forgiven and forgotten. But, I believe, unfortunately, when some people are labelled as being unnatural, then this negative label may unhappily never leave them at all. Seán O'Brien, Carnanes South, Kilrush, Co Clare Read More Irish Examiner view: Trump tariff plan in disarray just as his biggest cheerleader exits
The Irish Sun
24-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
‘Such a privilege' – RTE Sport host Jacqui Hurley to PLAY for Ireland internationally as she reveals prowess
JACQUI Hurley has shared her pride at being selected to play for Ireland's Over-40s basketball team in Switzerland this summer. The versatile broadcaster is mostly associated with Gaelic Games and rugby union owing to her 2 She took over from Des Cahill as host of The Sunday Game in 2023 2 The 41-year-old plays for Meteors Ladies Basketball Club Credit: @jacquihurley7 However, she has also had a lifelong passion for basketball and represented Ireland at underage level and into her 20s before she prioritised her budding media career with Evidently she's been in fine form for her local club side as she's been chosen to line out for an Irish Over-40s side at the 17th FIMBA World Maxibasketball Championships. Reposting Basketball Ireland's "Looking forward to making more memories with a phenomenal group of women." Read More On Irish Sport Earlier this year Hurley That's especially impressive considering she also still plays ladies football She reflected: "I turned 41 very recently and I reckon the football will have to go. "I'll move into a coaching role in that respect. Most read in Other Sports "But the basketball is something I'd like to play into my 50s. "There are so many former Irish internationals that I've known down the years, and they are still playing. Limerick GAA fans troll RTE pundit Donal Og Cusack after win over Cork "I'd love to play on an Irish Masters team and travel with them. Someday, hopefully." As if that wasn't enough of a packed playing CV with which to boast of, she also played camogie for Cork in her 20s. In that same interview she delved into how she has to be mindful of her natural biases when covering Gaelic Games. She laughed: "Ah no, when Cork was playing in the All-Ireland hurling final last year, I was sitting beside Anthony Daly and we almost had to be separated. "We did have great craic, but I'm emotionally invested in the GAA, and it can be very hard to detach myself. "But you must keep bias separate. "When the Cork camogie team won down the years – I would have played with a lot of them. "But you must keep your emotions in check on air, because you're a broadcaster and journalist first and foremost and have a job to do."
Belfast Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Camogie Assocation gives green light to wearing of shorts
The ballot on Thursday night saw 98% vote in favour of the change which will result in players across Ireland having the option of wearing shorts or skorts. There had been protests in recent weeks over whether camogie players should have the option of wearing shorts or skorts, leading to some matches being postponed or delayed. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Previous rules had dictated that camogie players must wear a skort during matches, which has the appearance of a skirt, but has built-in shorts underneath. Camogie is the female equivalent of hurling, a team-based field game played with a wooden stick called a hurl or hurley and a ball called a sliotar. The special congress meeting was held at Croke Park in Dublin. Camogie Association president Brian Molloy said: 'We are pleased to announce that delegates have voted by an overwhelming majority in favour of giving players greater choice in their playing attire. 'From midnight tonight, each individual player will have the option to wear skorts or shorts – adding choice while maintaining the professionalism and uniformity of our team kits in both colour and design. 'I want to sincerely thank our incredible volunteers for their ongoing support over the last few weeks, and to our delegates for voting on behalf of over 120,000 members, including 94,000 playing members.' A statement from the Gaelic Players' Association (GPA) welcomed the vote. It said: 'The GPA would like to put on the record our admiration for camogie players across Ireland and beyond, both at inter-county and club level, who made their voices heard to ensure this outcome. 'To our own membership who have led the campaign for choice, we salute your willingness to stand up for both yourselves, and future generations of camogie players. 'We thank the delegates who listened to players' call for choice. 'The last few weeks have once again shown the necessity of putting players at the heart of decision making within Gaelic Games.'
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
After More Than a Century in Skorts and Skirts, Ireland's Camogie Allows Shorts
The sport's rules were written more than a century ago, when the mere playing of Gaelic games was a political act in British-occupied Ireland. Much has changed for the island and its athletes since then, but one thing has not: Women on Gaelic Camogie teams are forbidden from wearing shorts during official play and are required to wear a skort. On Thursday, 121 years since the first rules ensconced the gendered uniform requirements, the Camogie Athletic Association voted to allow players to choose to wear either shorts or a skort. 'We welcome the result of this evening's vote for choice,' the Gaelic Player's Association, which includes Ireland's Camogie players, said in a statement posted on X. 'The GPA would like to put on the record our admiration for Camogie players across Ireland and beyond, both at inter-county and club level, who made their voices heard to ensure this outcome.' In a country that prides itself on contemporary, progressive policies, the exhaustive debate over Camogie apparel has needled some of Ireland's most entrenched underbellies. For years, athletes have said they would prefer to play in shorts. Young girls have said the same, and studies have shown that attire concerns are one of the main reasons girls quit athletics at a young age. Still, the sport's global governing body, the Camogie Association, had repeatedly voted to keep the skort rule in place, endorsing tradition and history — and, players said, gender bias. The rule 'screams sexism,' Jane Adams, a former Camogie All-Star from County Antrim, in Northern Ireland, told the BBC. Camogie is a brutal game, known for its physical demands and high-stakes contact, played with paddle-shaped wooden sticks and a small, hard ball. A uniquely Irish sport with few comparisons, at least in the American sporting landscape, Camogie is something like a cross between field hockey, baseball and lacrosse. A similar sport played by men is known as 'hurling.' Camogie was also one of the last major sports in the Western world to force its athletes to abide by a gendered dress code. Those regulations were written in the early 20th century while Ireland was still occupied by the British crown, which would declare Gaelic sports 'dangerous' and ban them from being played without permits. Many women's sports have faced similar reckonings in recent years, and there is growing consensus within the athletic community that concessions ought to be made for the differing needs of female athletes. In 2023, the International Hockey Federation voted to allow players the choice on what sort of kit — shorts, skirts or skorts — they would wear for official play. Manchester City Women and the England Women's Football Team have adopted darker uniform options, to address concerns over athletes' periods. Even Wimbledon has reconsidered its stringent dress codes; its all-white undershorts requirement now has an exception that likewise allows for darker garments. Despite a long-running debate among players over the skorts requirement, the Camogie Association voted as recently as last year to keep the measure in place. But recent weeks have seen the skorts question explode into the public forum after widespread protests by players disrupted several league semifinals and championships. Earlier this month, players in Derry arrived on the field in shorts and were sent back to the locker room to change. In Dublin, players from the city's squad and Kilkenny staged a protest, wearing shorts as they appeared for a semifinal; both teams were sent back to the locker room after officials threatened to cancel the match, leading to a forfeit if the women didn't change. The images of female athletes being directed off the pitch by male officials have become emblematic of the debate. 'Career low for me today when 60 plus players ready to play a championship game in shorts are told their match will be abandoned if every player doesn't change into skorts,' Aisling Maher, the captain of the Dublin Camogie team, said on social media after the protest. Days after the Dublin match, Camogie officials were made aware of a planned protest by the Cork and Waterford teams, who were due to face each other in a provincial final. The game was postponed, and players doubted it would be rescheduled. 'We were willing to take that stance. We knew we'd have to drive this forward,' said Lorraine Bray, 28, the captain of the Waterford team. It was only the second time the county had appeared in the provincial final, she said, so the postponement stung. But, she said, it had led to something: 'I suppose that's what made it go to congress,' she said of the vote. 'I think the message that goes out to players is, we will react. We will engage. We will work. If you talk to us, we will work with you. But we will do it within our rules,' Brian Molloy, the president of the Camogie Association, said in a statement after the vote. 'We cannot set aside rules just because people want us to.' The vote, held by a Special Congress in Dublin's Croke Park, was approved by 98 percent of delegates. From midnight Thursday, players will be permitted to choose between shorts or skorts during official play. The move comes just in time for the beginning of the busy All-Ireland tournament season that is a touchstone of the summer and Gaelic sport calendar.
RTÉ News
21-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
New Dublin GAA club provides 'support network' to newcomers
A new GAA club in Dublin has provided a vital "support network" to people who have made the city their home. Columbus Gaelic is Ireland's first migrant-led GAA club, bringing together players from 28 countries to help them adapt to life on Irish soil. Since its formation on St Patrick's Day 2024, the club has welcomed 117 newcomers, 72 of whom attend their training sessions regularly at Fairview Park, Dublin. The club was founded by Emilio Piccione from Italy, who saw Gaelic Games as a pathway into Irish culture for people like himself. "Gaelic Games is a safe place for all the migrants who want to integrate with Irish culture," he said. "Our players come from all over the world, and Columbus gives them a place where they feel they belong." At first, Gaelic Games were not even part of the plan. Mr Piccione and club director Marianella Oropeza from Venezuela thought rounders would be a better starting point for Latin American migrants familiar with baseball and softball. "But we realised GAA would connect people better," said Mr Piccione. "We started with football, and a month later we were playing hurling too," he added. "You learn a new sport and the Irish culture, and at the same time you meet people from other countries. It helps you feel less isolated." As the club grew, Ms Oropeza focused on connecting with migrants through language and culture. "We try to get at least one person from each community involved - not just to translate, but to help others feel understood," she said. "It's easier to reach people when they know you understand their background." For the club's Argentine football captain, Luciano Escanosa, Columbus Gaelic is more than a team - it is a support system. "It's an amazing opportunity for migrants," he said. "You learn a new sport and the Irish culture, and at the same time you meet people from other countries. It helps you feel less isolated," he added. Some players discover the club by chance. Juan Carlos from Chile showed up at Fairview Park to play soccer but ended up staying for Gaelic football. "I'm going to play soccer, but I finished with Gaelic football." "It's strange at first - you use your hands - but it's amazing," he said. "It's very different. In football there's no touching with the hands, so it's very strange for me. "It reminds me of basketball, football and tennis." Rafael Schürhaus from Brazil, who joined alongside Juan Carlos, shared a similar reaction. "I thought it was an amazing experience in the field. I never saw this sport before, it's amazing," he said. Starting from scratch Hurling has become one of the most popular sports at Columbus. German coach Chris Bethe trains complete beginners every week. "Most of them have never even seen this sport before," he said. "Some didn't even know the name of the sport. So, we keep it very basic, very beginner-friendly," he added. Columbus Gaelic provides a unique environment where adults can learn the skills of Gaelic Games from scratch - a rarity in traditional Irish clubs. Alex Hernandez from El Salvador highlights why this is so important. "All the Irish people start to play when they are children, and I was looking for someone to teach me from zero," he said. "It's very skilful, but also the culture that is included with the sport. "We want to start with kids properly, because that will be our base for the future." "On the pitch we are rivals, but after the match, we are friends. I really enjoy it, so here I am still playing after one year." Beyond sport, the club has become a support network where players help each other find jobs, housing, and navigate life in Ireland. "It's a community, and that helps with integration," Mr Bethe explained. "Hurling is such an important part of Irish culture and heritage. It's good to know about this sport, to play this sport, it certainly helps with integration into Irish society." "It's good to have some form of community, where they help each other out when it comes to life and living arrangements," he added. Looking ahead, the club plans to affiliate officially with the GAA in 2026 and hopes to expand underage development within two years. "We want to see a proper club with not just adult migrants, but also kids, and to bring some players to the county, of course," said Emilio. "We want to start with kids properly, because that will be our base for the future." "Of course, to get bigger, we need Irish players. We need Irish to get involved in our project to play next season. We need some experience. We need coaches and we need managers and volunteers for our project," he added.
